*** Editor's Note: This post was written by Michael Cayley. The new Director of Startup Grind Toronto****
The word is out. According to Startup Genome, Toronto is one of the best places in the world to launch a startup. With new funding sources like Round13 Capital and Jevon MacDonald's call to embrace optimism on the heels of a strong year for early exits, opportunity and execution are the new themes of the Canadian startup scene.
With that in mind, we are proud to announce the launch of Startup Grind Toronto.
By bringing together Toronto’s community of entrepreneurs, investors, programmers, designers, and general technology enthusiast we hope to create a new environment for people to connect, learn, and get inspired.
We are excited to add our voice to the Startup Grind community and promote the many great things happening in our area. Things like promising startups, local co-investors, and new Canadian tax laws that have created wonderful opportunities for US investors.
#StartupGrind (save that twitter search!) is founded on the premise that launching and running a startup is hard. It doesn't matter if you are in Silicon Valley or anywhere else in the world, Founders need ways to connect with other Founders, mentors and globally oriented investors to not only get inspired and educated but to relieve the isolation that comes along with pressing forward on a fundamentally ambiguous adventure.
By collaborating with Startup Grind chapters in LA, NYC, Austin, Marin, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Tempe and Ottawa (with many more coming soon) we can do just that. We can recognize that neither the optimism building across our startup ecosystem nor the challenges of emergence are Toronto centric. We can expand our scope, our resources, and ensure that our focus is a little less provincial.
The conversation about how to improve productivity in innovation is just getting started, and Toronto looks forward to being part of that conversation.
Our first “fire-side chat” event will be in late May or early June. Food and drink will be provided. In addition, we’re in the process of lining up speakers for the next few months, so if you know any global startup rock stars that are traveling through Toronto, then please let me know. We would love to offer our community that tactical and strategic shot of magic that comes from hearing someone who has been there and done that.
As always, feel free to contact me at michael at startupgrind dot com with story ideas, questions, suggestions or potential speaker engagements.